No military solutions for Maoism
Having killed 76 paramilitary troops in April, Maoists have killed 30 more in a bus explosion in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh. Some cabinet ministers want aerial bombing of Dantewada’s jungles to kill Maoists. This will kill civilians and strengthen the Maoists. The problem is not military, and has no military solutions.
Home minister Chidambaram says he wants the air force not for bombing but surveillance and logistics. This too is a quasi-military approach, short-sighted and doomed to failure.
Maoists have flourished in several states but been routed in Andhra Pradesh. AP achieved success not through military force but a well-trained and politically empowered police, plus intelligent politics. A similar model crushed Sikh terrorism in Punjab. It needs replication in all Maoist-hit states.
Initially, the then AP chief minister Rajasekhara Reddy tried negotiating with the Maoists but found they were merely buying time. So he formulated a new strategy using the full administration, not the police alone.
First, the police got additional staff, superior training, arms, vehicles and communications, as in Punjab. Second, the government built an intensive network of roads in the jungles of the four worst-affected northern districts. Trying to control a jungle belt with a few roads is a death trap, as shown in Dantewada.
via No military solutions for Maoism-Swaminathan S A Aiyar-Columnists-Opinion-The Economic Times.
